Barking at the Mailman and Smiling at a Funeral
by AndAllThatMishigas
Summary: Jed and Abbey struggle to find time for themselves in the midst of his campaign for Congress. But tragedy disrupts the entire family's routine. Bartlet History 24.


Author's Note: It has been a LONG TIME since we've had an installment of Bartlet History. This is something of a transitional time for our dear Bartlets, but everything is going to be okay. They're on to bigger and better things. Please review if you feel so inclined :)

 **Barking at the Mailman and Smiling at a Funeral**

"Take your pants off," Abbey murmured, sucking and biting on her husband's neck. She was already completely naked under the covers of their bed, lit only by the candles placed around the room, shaded by the blackout curtains on the windows.

Jed groaned with desire, struggling with his clothes as he continued to kiss every inch of her body that he could reach.

All of a sudden, a strange barking sounded elsewhere in the house. Both Jed and Abbey were startled away from each other.

"What the hell was that?" Jed asked, confused.

Abbey fell back onto the bed. "Oh my god," she muttered in frustration. "Liz told Zoey that dogs bark at the mailman. So since she wants a dog so bad, she's decided to take a dog's place and now she barks whenever the mail comes."

The barking continued. Jed started to laugh. "How long has she been doing that?"

"A few days. And she doesn't stop until someone brings the mail into the house," Abbey explained. She loved and adored her three-year-old, she really did, but she would have given anything at this particular moment to only have two children.

Jed stood up from the bed and put his pants back on. "I guess I'll go get the mail. Don't you move an inch," he insisted.

"You better hurry back, or I'll take care of myself. Jed, I swear to god," she warned.

He chuckled and gave her a quick kiss. She ran her hand down his bare chest and moaned as he left.

Jed went downstairs as fast as he could. He found little Zoey barking out the front window. He shook his head at his strange child. "Hey, pumpkin, how about we go get the mail, hmm?" He slipped on a pair of shoes he kept by the door for this very purpose.

Zoey bounded toward her father, barking and yelping excitedly. They went out into the summer sunshine to go down the drive to their mailbox. As a fun sort of game, Jed took each piece of mail out one by one and handed each to Zoey to carry. She was ecstatic. But when they'd gotten all the mail, she started to calm down and actually notice things. "Daddy, where is your shirt?" she asked.

"Upstairs," he answered simply.

"Were you taking a nap with Mommy?"

"Sure. And Mommy is waiting for me, so let's go through the mail really quick, and then you can go back to watching cartoons, okay?"

The child just nodded, accepting the lies her father told.

Luckily, the mail was pretty thin today. He took each envelope and showed Zoey the return addresses to help her practice her reading. They received two bills, an ad for a sale at Macy's, and a postcard from Ellie at her sleep-away camp. The last envelope was addressed to Bartlet for New Hampshire, but at their home address instead of his congressional campaign office. Curious, he opened it as Zoey was trying to sound out all the words on Ellie's postcard.

"Zo, you stay down here for a little while, please. I have to talk to Mom for a little bit."

"But I don't know these words!"

"I'll help you later. You can go watch TV if you can't figure it out before I come back." He kissed her forehead and took the campaign envelope upstairs to Abbey.

As soon as the bedroom door opened and she saw her husband, Abbey nearly leapt out of bed and physically jumped him. "Pants off, now!" she insisted. "I don't think I can wait any longer, babe."

"Honey, look at this!" he said, ignoring her sexual advances. "I got a campaign donation!"

She frowned, for multiple reasons. "It was addressed to the house? Isn't that a FEC violation or something?"

"I think we can get an exemption for a check from my parents," he replied with a grin.

"Really?" Abbey was dumbfounded. Jed had announced his intent to run for Congress to his family more than six earlier. And Jed's parents had been…less than receptive to the idea, to put it kindly.

"See?" He handed her the check. It wasn't an insignificant sum, either.

Abbey frowned. "Oh, honey, look, this is your mother's handwriting," she realized sadly. Abbey knew it was far too much to hope for that John Bartlet proudly support his son in any way. Jed had been scolded for joining the seminary, yelled at for dropping out, ignored when he'd published a book, shamed for becoming a professor, and then mocked for going into public office. No matter what Jed did, his father never seemed to approve. Actually, that wasn't quite true. He'd been very proud when Jed and Abbey had gotten married. As awful as he could be to his son, John was always very sweet and warm to Abbey.

Jed held onto his optimism. "I don't think she'd have written a check if he didn't want her to. My mom's never been one to stir up trouble with him. No, I think this is a step in the right direction," he said with conviction. "I'm going to call and thank them right now."

"Jed!" Abbey whined, "You have spent the last two months doing campaign events and I have spent the last two months working around the clock. This is the first time we've had to ourselves without children under foot in I don't know how long, and I am naked, and you want to call your mother!?"

He smirked. "Just be patient, Dr. Bartlet. I'll make it worth the wait, I promise." Jed picked up the telephone by the bed to dial the number for his parents' house.

Frustrated by this turn of events, Abbey got out of bed. "I'm going to take a shower," she grumbled.

Jed watched her walk past him with appreciation, but quickly forced himself to look away as the phone started ringing on the line. It wouldn't do to speak to his parents while checking out his naked wife. But, strangely, no one answered the phone. He let it ring for about three whole minutes before hanging up. Despite their convincing, neither Jed nor his brother, Jonathan, could convince their parents to get an answering machine. So Jed just shrugged, making a mental note to call back later. Besides, now he could join Abbey in the shower.

But before he could even take off his pants, again, the phone rang. He answered it immediately. "Hello?"

"Jed, oh god, I'm glad you picked up."

He frowned. "Mrs. Landingham?"

"Yes, dear, it's me. I'm at your parents' house."

"I was just trying to call. I didn't get an answer."

"I know. I mean, I didn't pick up the phone on purpose. Jed, you've got to come as soon as you can. The ambulance just took your father to Parish Hospital."

Jed's heart sank into his stomach. "What!? What happened!?"

"I was at the house planning the curriculum and salary changes with the headmaster, as we always do in August before the new school year, and all of a sudden, he stopped talking and his mouth went slack, and he just collapsed from the chair," Mrs. Landingham told him. Her voice was even and grave.

"Where's my mother?"

"She went with him in the ambulance."

"Can you please call Jonathan and tell him what you know? And let him know that I'm going to the hospital and he should meet me there as soon as he can?"

"Of course. What about Abbey and the girls?"

"Liz is out with some friends. Ellie is away at camp. Abbey is in the shower. Zoey barks at the mail. I'll…I'll tell Abbey and have her wait at home for Liz. They can all come meet us later, once I know something. And you should come meet me after you speak to Jonathan." Jed's mind was all over the place. He didn't quite know what he was saying. He didn't even wait for Mrs. Landingham to respond. He just hung up the phone.

Jed felt numb as he stood up and went into the bathroom. The shower was still running.

"Abbey?" he called weakly.

"If you're done being distracted, you can come wash my hair for me," she said flirtatiously, peeking out from behind the shower door. But she saw his face. "Jed? Honey, what's wrong? What happened?"

"Mrs. Landingham just called. An ambulance took my father to the hospital."

Abbey didn't wait for any more explanation. She turned off the water and wrapped a towel around herself. "You go to the hospital. I'll meet you there with Zoey in a little while. I'll leave a note for Liz. She can come in her car later."

Somewhere in the back of his mind, Jed was glad for the very first time that they had given Liz a car for her sixteenth birthday.

Jed drove to the hospital in Exeter to see his father and be with his mother. He didn't leave for three days. Abbey went back and forth, bringing him clothes and food and various other things he might need. She took time off work so she could be available for whatever the family needed. To the best of her ability, she communicated with the doctors and explained the situation to everyone.

John had suffered a very severe stroke, a blood clot in his brain that blocked blood an oxygen from getting where it needed to be. As a result, he'd slipped into a coma and had thus far been unresponsive to any kind of treatment. Abbey insisted they take new scans every day, in case there was a change. There wasn't. The prognosis wasn't good.

The second day in the hospital, Jonathan and his whole family arrived. His wife, Paula, did her best to entertain Eric and Robert, their two young boys, as well as little Zoey. Liz took time out of her busy teenaged social life to help with the family. Abbey had to admit she was a little surprised but pleased at Elizabeth's priorities.

After three days of seeing to his mother's every need, Mary Bartlet told Jed to go. "I love you very much, dear, but I need some time to myself. And I think you do, too. Go talk to Abbey for a while. She always puts you right."

Jed wasn't happy to hear he wasn't needed, but he did as he was told. He went out to the waiting room, where all the Bartlets had been camped for days. He paused, staring at Abbey for a moment. "I'm going to take a walk," he told the group.

Abbey wasn't sure what that meant. Jed wasn't the best in a personal crisis. If he wasn't personally involved, he was amazing during stressful situations. But when his family was involved, he became truly useless. Did he need time alone? Did he want time alone with her? Was he going to do something stupid?

Mrs. Landingham nudged Abbey. "Go with him. Even if he doesn't want you with him right now, he needs you," she insisted.

So Abbey did as she was told. It took her a minute to figure out which direction he'd gone in, but she caught up to him quite quickly. "Jed? Honey?" She spoke tentatively, reaching for his arm very apprehensively.

He noticed her hesitation. "You don't need to be scared of me."

"I just don't want to make anything worse."

Her words took him out of his own head. He took her hand and squeezed it affectionately. Jed noticed a bench just outside the hospital doors and sat down, prompting Abbey to sit beside him. "Abbey, is my father going to die?" he asked bluntly.

She clutched his arm and rested her head on his shoulder in a vain attempt to comfort him. "Yes. I don't know exactly when, but he probably won't come out of that coma."

Jed was quiet for a minute. "Okay," he said finally.

They had the funeral a week later. Ellie came home early from camp in order to attend. She was amazingly good at explaining death to little Zoey, answering all of her toddler questions. Mary stayed at the farm with Jed and Abbey and the kids, unable to go back to her empty house in Exeter just yet.

With the gravitas and grace of a public official, Jed delivered the most beautiful eulogy for his father. "John Bartlet was a complicated person. A strict father, a demanding headmaster, and a good man. Everything I am and everything I'll ever do is a result of him. He taught my brother and I to strive for more, for better, for the best. It created in us a fire to prove ourselves and to never stop working for more in our lives, our careers, and our families." Jed went on to discuss John's triumphs as headmaster of the Exeter School for most of his life. There wasn't much more to say in a eulogy.

Abbey watched her husband speak and cried into her handkerchief. Thankfully, a funeral was the most acceptable place to do that. But Abbey wasn't crying over the death of John Bartlet. No, she was crying because she understood the subtext of Jed's words. He had never gotten the praise he so desperately sought from his father, whether or not he realized it. And Abbey was mildly terrified of what that would do to her husband. What lengths would he go to seeking the approval of a dead man? He was running for Congress now. How far would he go? Would he ever stop? Knowing Jed, the answer to that last question was a resounding, 'no.'

After the service, Jed found Mrs. Landingham quietly mourning away from the crowd. "I'm sorry for your loss," he said kindly.

"He was your father, dear," she replied.

"Yeah, but you spent more time with him than anyone else. How long has it been since you started working at the school, twenty years?"

"Twenty-four."

"Listen, I know this probably isn't the time to talk about this, but I just wanted to let you know that after you train the new headmaster, since that'll be more your job than anyone else…If I win in November…I'd like you to come work for me," Jed rambled, finally getting to the point.

"In Washington?"

"Actually, I'd like you to run my district office in Manchester. Head administrator."

"Jed, I've never worked in politics."

"But you've run an office for twenty-four years. And there's no one I trust more."

Delores Landingham, right in the middle of a funeral, began to smile. "When you win the election, you can ask me again."

Jed nodded, returning her smile.

From across the room, Abbey watched her husband's body language. She, too, began to smile. No, he wasn't so broken after all.


End file.
